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Saturday, May 26, 2012

Weekly Wrap-up: Done!

Friday, May 25: our last day of school.

Duncan has finished, um, what? 5th grade for sure and mid-way through 6th grade. I don't know how to say that other than that, next year he'll be straddling 6th and 7th grades. Hopefully sometime in that year we'll decide whether we will officially bump him up a grade or not. Laurel's easier. She's officially finished her freshman year. Well, except algebra. She still has another month or more until she is done with that, but what's a little daily math in the summer? And I do still have several Sonlight books to finish with Duncan, but we'll enjoy a few chapters a day throughout the hot afternoons.

• I finished up my British Lit class. I am still grading research papers and final exams, but I am at least halfway done with that. I love teaching high schoolers, and although British Lit is not my personal favorite, it was a great year. Next year's I'm teaching my favorite, American Lit.

• Randy's mom came to visit to see all the amazing end-of-year productions. First, there was the play Comic Book Hero that the drama class put on. It was absolutely fantastic! I am soooo impressed with our drama class. I know their teacher works incredibly hard and wow! She really knows how to bring out the best in the kids.

• Next, Duncan and Laurel were in a production at our performing arts co-op. Duncan did both flags and was in the drama; Laurel was just dancing this year. She and both her friends above have been moved up to the advanced class for next year and have been invited to be on the traveling dance team. That is very exciting and means that she may be going on a trip to Israel next February to perform!

• Laurel had her last day of co-op classes the following day, and our co-op had its annual used curriculum sale. I made a whopping $75, which delighted me! But more importantly, Laurel won the Top Science Scholar Award in her physical science class. That was a pretty awesome accomplishment for a girl who went into the year saying "I don't like science."

• Tuesday was Duncan's crossover from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. It was also Randy's crossover from 8 years as Cubmaster to Assistant Scoutmaster. He's actually been an Assistant Scoutmaster for many years, but this ended us Cubmaster career. I posted a bazillion pictures on that link, and you should go read it just to see my awesome cake. Since then Duncan has had his first two Boy Scout meetings, and we even have a Court of Honor this evening, at which he'll receive his first rank.

• Wednesday of that week was our annual field day. I am just not a field day person and never was (I'm not even sure we had field day at my school, or quite possibly I blocked it out!), and neither are my kids, but we went to have fun with friends anyway! It was so well organized, and the kids had a great time. I am constantly thankful for our support group!

• That Thursday evening we had our American Heritage Girls end-of-year
ceremony and crossover. Our high school girls always lead the ceremony.
They do such a fantastic job, and it's so nice for Caroline and I to be
able to sit back and watch. We do the actual crossing-over ceremony, but
the Patriot girls do the rest, including presenting badges and service
stars. This next year in AHG will be an emotional one for Caroline and
me. We started this troop 9 years ago, and our tenth year will be our
last as coordinators. Our own girls were just first graders when we
started! We will stay on for one year as their leaders after we hand
over the coordinator position, and then, if all goes according to plan,
our girls will earn their Stars and Stripes (Eagle Scout equivalent) and
be done!

Opening ceremonies. The Patriots are leading the Pathfinders (blue shirts) in singing "Amazing Grace" while the colorguard awaits

Patriots receiving badges

* In the midst of all these ceremonies and productions, my brother (I have four older brothers, and he is the one next in line above me) and his wife came to visit with their new baby! I have at least 6,000 pictures of Koll Henry, but here is when I got to hold him for the first time:

• Since the flurry of activity during the first two weeks of May, we have been enjoying relative peace and quiet. We've been to Dollywood a couple of times. Randy and I ran a 5K—my favorite course yet and my best time. In addition to our regular running days, I started the Couch to 5K program with the kids. They are fairly reluctant about it, but they both need a regular exercise program for their various scouting badges and for PE. We are also trying to be more diligent about going to the health center for cardio and weight machines and swimming, now that we have more free time. Next week we are all joining a pilates class on Mondays and a yoga class on Tuesdays. Combined with our regular hiking and biking, we should have an exercise-packed summer! Oh—and also Duncan joined the fencing club, so he'll be adding fencing to his exercise regimen.

• Last week was our support group's graduation ceremony. For the past couple of years, our AHG troop has volunteered to prepare and serve at the reception. Since I missed the ceremony helping to set up, I don't have any photos of our 19 graduates. But here are some of the girls!

• And yes, I realize this has been all about the activities and nothing about academics. Obviously, our academic schedule has slacked off this month. We've been doing lots of reading aloud, a little grammar, handwriting, and math. Laurel finished all of her classes except algebra and personal finance at the beginning of May, so she has just been focusing on those two subjects. Oh, well, and finishing British Lit. Yes, the teacher's kid gets a little extra time to turn everything in.